There seems to be a fair amount of confusion over whether criticism of Islamic homophobia is Islamaphobia. But try this: would these advocates rally in defense of the rights of Christian fundamentalists? Alternatively, would they ever demand that a halal bakery create desserts for a same-sex wedding?

More. Chris Barron, in a blurb for the satirical Social Justice Warrior Handbook, says it’s invaluable for “the modern LGBTQIA activist desperate to fight the oppression of pronouns and gender specific bathrooms all while ignoring the barbaric treatment of LGBT people in the Islamic world.”

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There seems to be a fair amount of confusion over whether criticism of Islamic homophobia is Islamaphobia.

Just as there seems to be a fair amount of confusion over whether criticism of conservative Christian homophobia is an attack upon Christians and Christianity.

Both critics and defenders of homophobic religious adherents fall into the logical fallacies of generalization and ad hominem thinking all too easily.

We see it among those who seem to believe defense of the constitutional rights of Muslims necessarily requires the defense of Islam’s teaching about homosexuality, and we see it among those who use Islam’s teachings about homosexuality to justify curtailing the constitutional rights of Muslims. We see it among those who cherry pick the actions of a few and impute those actions to the many. And so on.

Bruce Bawer falls right into the trap. He despises Islam for its homophobia, arguing that Islam’s teachings about homosexuality necessarily preclude inclusion of Muslims in Western democratic societies. But he turns a blind eye to Christian homophobia, which, in Europe (Bawer lives in Norway and writes almost exclusively about European culture/politics) is probably more dangerous, at present, to equal/fair treatment of gays and lesbians in Europe than is Islamic homophobia.

Neither Islam’s teachings about homosexuality nor conservative Christianity’s teaching about homosexuality bother me. Religionists are as free to believe what they believe as the rest of us.

What bothers me are religionists who argue that the Constitution should play second fiddle to “God’s Law” (as expressed in the Bible, the Quaran or the Talmud) in the governance of our nation.

Mike Huckabee, for example, said this when running for President:

I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that’s what we need to do is amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than trying to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family.

To me, that statement, and others like it made by Christio-conservative politicians over the last decade, are as chilling as calls from Muslim religious extremists calling for imposition of Islamic religious teaching upon civil law.

It might be a worthwhile exercise for those who are quick to argue that Muslims cannot participate in our democracy because of Islam’s teaching about homosexuality to consider the question of whether conservative Christians can participate in our democracy because of Christianity’s teachings about homosexuality.

To my mind, the answer in both cases is the same: Of course homophobic religionists can (and should) participate in our democracy, but all religionists, homophobic or not, need to understand that our democratic republic is, and must remain if it is to be successful, religion-neutral. And if homophobic religionists are too blind to see that, then the rest of us need to remind them, constantly.

“But try this: would these advocates rally in defense of the rights of Christian fundamentalists?”
They would, but they’d trip over everyone else already doing so.

And what’s with the “halal bakery” nonsense? The reason all of the “gay wedding cake” stories in America have involved Christians is because the country is 70% Christian and there have been a handful of cases. It’s not some anti-Christian conspiracy, it’s basic probability.

More. Chris Barron, in a blurb for the satirical Social Justice Warrior Handbook, says it’s invaluable for “the modern LGBTQIA activist desperate to fight the oppression of pronouns and gender specific bathrooms all while ignoring the barbaric treatment of LGBT people in the Islamic world.”

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